Enclosures for rack mount type storage units are well known. Typical enclosures used in rack mount type storages units arrange a plurality (3 to 14) hard disk drives (HDDs) in removable carriers that are accessible from the “front” of the enclosure (the side typically facing a user area), and usually are arranged so that data and power cables are accessible from the “back” of the enclosure. Although these enclosures allow HDDs to be replaced fairly easily if one were to fail, the number of HDDs that can be mounted in the enclosure is limited to how many HDDs will fit across the front area. As this front area is limited, the number of enclosures that are needed is greatly increased when large amount of data needs to be stored on HDDs.
Therefore, it may be desirable to provide an enclosure having an architecture that maximizes space by increasing the number of HDDs that can be mounted in the enclosure while still allowing for easy replacement of individual drives.